Pickup trucks are used to transport lawnmowers, tillers, snow blowers, wheelbarrows, snowmobiles, motorcycles and off-road vehicles of all types. Tailgate ramps are used to load these vehicles and equipment into the truck box. Between uses, these ramps are often precariously laid into the truck box where they can fall off the truck and become lost on the highway, or where they can move around inside the truck box and damage the equipment being transported. Because of these inconveniences, a need has been recognized for stowing or otherwise retaining tailgate ramps in an orderly manner inside a pickup truck.
The prior art contains several models of storage compartments incorporated in the sidewalls or in the floor of a truck box. Examples of these storage compartments are listed below:    U.S. Pat. No. 3,068,038 issued to C. C. Douglass, Jr., on Dec. 11, 1962;    U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,713 issued to D. A. Ogilvie on Apr. 12, 1966;    U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,595 issued to D. A. Ogilvie on Jun. 20, 1967;    U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,058 issued to J. E. Johnson on Jun. 5, 1973;    U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,761 issued to A. G. Milroy et al., on Oct. 9, 1984;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,969 issued to L. W. Simnacher on Apr. 19, 1994;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,922 issued to R. W. Blanchard on Apr. 1, 1997;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,818 issued to G. D. Flueckinger on Dec. 15, 1998;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,000 issued to S. Clare on Oct. 22, 1996;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,271 issued to J. F. Sanders on Jun. 30, 1998;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,598 issued to S. Clare et al., on Oct. 20, 1998;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,923 issued to G. M. Scott et al., on Dec. 21, 1999;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,129 issued to J. M. Kearney Jr., on Dec. 28, 1999′    U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,474 issued to W. Daley on Aug. 15, 2000;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,233 issued to S. W. Craik on Aug. 8, 2000;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,604 issued to J. Beene et al., on Nov. 19, 2002;    U.S. Pat. D473,839 issued to D. Atencio on Apr. 29, 2003;    U.S. Pat. D487,720 issued to R. Thomas on Mar. 23, 2004;    US Patent Appl. 2005/0052045 filed by R. Juzwiak on Mar. 17, 2004;    U.S. Pat. No. 7,488,025 issued to A. M. Roberson on Feb. 10, 2009.
Although several storage compartments have been found in the prior art, there is still a need for a better storage compartment that does not take away from the available space inside the truck box. There is also a need for a better storage case that is easily accessible when the truck box is loaded with a large all-terrain-vehicle (ATV) for example.
The useable floor space in a truck box is somewhat limited by the footprints of the wheel wells, and therefore, the space above the wheel wells is available for mounting storage compartments without compromising the clearance needed to drive an ATV in and out of the truck box.
In order to further minimize the space taken by storage compartments in a truck box, it is advantageous to install these compartments as closes as possible from the sidewalls of the box, and more preferably, it is advantageous to install these compartments inside the available hollow spaces in the sidewalls, between the framing members of the sidewalls. It is believed that the prior art compartments do not fulfill these requirements. Because of this deficiency basically, it is believed that the storage compartments of the past have experienced a limited commercial success.
Therefore, it is believed that there is a need for a better tailgate ramp storage case to be offered for sale as an after-market accessory, for mounting inside the hollow space in the sidewall of a truck box.